From reviews of How Covid Crashed the System (2022), with Dr. David Nash
An expert overview of America’s dysfunctional health care system and good ideas for fixing it. … In a passionate but lucid, fact-based polemic … Nash and Wohlforth deliver an intelligent prescription for reform; thankfully, many of its features are already in progress. Convincing advice for reform that should persuade the persuadable.
Kirkus Reviews
How COVID Crashed the System’ is a gripping and well-researched book. . . It reads like a mystery novel that exposes all that went wrong during the COVID Crisis. The authors provide an essential roadmap to not only prepare for the next pandemic but how to align incentives that will prioritize health and equity in healthcare at the national level.
Helen Riess, MD, Empathetics newsletter
The book is a big, thought-provoking, and easily readable story of our once-in-a-lifetime pandemic. There is urgency, too, because the next pandemic is not likely to wait 100 years. The authors systematically examine failure, but also recognize some innovations spurred by critical necessity.
Mitch Kaminski, MD, MBA, Population Health Learning Network
Something good has to come out of this pandemic. I still have that hope because Dr. Nash and his co-author Charles Wohlforth wrote a guide to help fix American healthcare. If you are in healthcare, regardless of your role, buy this book, read it, have your team read it, and then meet to figure out how you can change your workplace.
Anne Llewellyn, Nurse Advocate
From reviews of Beyond Earth (with Dr. Amanda Hendrix; Knopf, 2016)
Beyond Earth is delightfully different from any other book I’ve ever read by human-spaceflight cheerleaders. The authors have put their thinking caps on and broken out of the usual orthodoxy by presenting cogent ideas on why humans should go into space.
Homer Hickam, The Wall Street Journal
Wohlforth’s wonderful storytelling ability results in a book that is deeply informative, yet lively and engaging from start to finish.
David A. James, Anchorage Daily News
Beyond Earth is a good look at the current state of human space-exploration technology, as well as how that will hold us back from doing the things we want to do. It’s both thoughtful and thought-provoking.
John Timmer, Ars Technica
Planetary scientist Hendrix and writer Wohlforth weave scientific research with fascinating speculation to paint a picture of how and why humankind might spread to other planets. . . . The two halves work together to create a striking, reality-based possible future that’s seen through the lens of current knowledge.
Publishers Weekly
Crucially, they parse the push and pull between cautious governments and gung-ho entrepreneurs, concluding that the two may ultimately add up to a propulsive combination.
Nature
From reviews of From the Shores of Ship Creek (Todd Communications, 2015)
The task: tell the century-long story of Anchorage in 124 pages. The man to do it: 50-year Anchorage resident Charles Wohlforth. … Wohlforth chose the periods based on his extensive historical knowledge of the city — he’s authored several books on Alaska and told the stories of some of the state’s most influential people.
Elwood Brehmer, Alaska Journal of Commerce
From the Shores of Ship Creek captures so many details about Anchorage’s history in a truly personal and unique way.
Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan
What is most impressive about Wohlforth’s book is how he seamlessly weaves together all the diffuse strands of politics, finance, personality clashes and iconic attributes into a kaleidoscopic tribute to Anchorage’s Centennial Celebration. If you’ve ever wondered how in the world Anchorage ended up like it is, you owe to it yourself to read From the Shores of Ship Creek—you’ll be pleased you did.
David Fox, Anchorage Press
From reviews of From Russian With Love (with Vic Fisher; UA Press 2012)
Reading this one is like sitting with Vic for one of the most fascinating conversations of your life. … The voice is all Vic’s, assisted by the very able interviewing and organizational skills of ‘book partner’ (Vic’s words) Charles Wohlforth, himself a lifelong Alaskan and author. … The extensive documentation makes To Russia with Love something very different from one person’s nostalgic memories. The archival materials and interviews gathered and referenced will surely be a valuable resource for future historians.
Nancy Lord, Anchorage Daily News
Never pedantic, never pedagogical, it is clear, concise, and masterfully told, like listening to your grandfather reminisce after dinner in front of the fire. It’s one of those books that keeps your interest until the end. … I cannot recommend it highly enough, for Alaskans and anyone else who finds history compelling.
Libbie Martin, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
From reviews of The Fate of Nature (St. Martins, 2010)
It quickly gets its hooks in deep. You’ll meet unforgettable people, learn things about the roots of conservationism and environmentalism you may not like, and wind up with something on which to loop a thread of hope. From Alaska, a planetary tome.
Charlie Petit, Knight Science Journalism Tracker
Wohlforth has an immersive prose style that’s engaging from the first page, and his obvious emotional investment in the natural beauty of Alaska, as well as his shame at the damage wrought to its environment, keeps the book anchored.
Leonard Pierce, The Onion’s AV Club
This is a beautifully written book. Like a well-crafted novel, you get a vivid sense of the characters involved (their motivations, passions and foibles) and a deep sense of place. You also gain a renewed faith in humanity.
Sydney Stevens, Mother Nature Network
This is a must-read, and not just because it is such a joy to read a well-written, thoughtfully produced, thoroughly researched work. It’s worth reading for the way it makes you think about all the things we’ve held as absolutes, all the hopelessness those absolutes have fostered in us.
Libbie Martin, Fairbanks News-Miner
From reviews of Saving for the Future (with Dave Rose; Epicenter Press, 2008)
The book was just published and is short, an easy read, and full of inside political baseball. It will be a trip down memory lane for many but was a lesson in history and politics for a newcomer like me. … It is an honest book and introspective.
Jeff Pantages, Anchorage Daily News
Dave was (sadly, he died before the book was quite finished) a genuine optimist with a gigantic love of life and adventure. His childhood, which he recounts with relish and great humor, could be said to be very sad. … Anyone interested in the health and welfare of the Permanent Fund Dividend should read the last chapter of this book.
Dee Longenbaugh, Sitka Sentinel and KTOO radio
From reviews of The Whale and the Supercomputer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004)
These are weighty topics, but Wohlforth, a longtime Alaska resident and writer, approaches them in a wonderfully readable manner. … Never has the complicated science of climate change been presented so clearly.
Ian Garrick Mason, San Francisco Chronicle
In this truly extraordinary book, journalist Wohlforth, an Alaskan resident, tackles the central question of our age: how do we know about our environment?
Betty Galbraith, Library Journal
Wohlforth’s character portraits are wonderfully detailed, and never simplistic … his unpredictable structure is engaging, and his stories reflect off one another in satisfying ways.
Michelle Nijhuis, High Country News
These fascinating narratives point a wide-angle lens at the ways we’re changing the planet, and the ways it’s changing us.
Men’s Journal
